I had a good laugh today. The miserable, ungrateful, snoggering, stinky French failed again. They were booed/whistled by 80,000 in their last home appearance and today they were booed again. They've not won a single game since winning the Cup at home in the 1990's. In fact, they haven't even scored! France 0 _ Switzerland 0 They're pathetic losers who deserve every embarrassment they suffer. In the other big game: Brazil 1 _ Croatia 0 The Brasilieros looked fairly spectacular against a very good Croat team. Croatia finished in Third Place in the last World Cup and they look good enough to challege that high again. Ronaldinho, Kaka, Roberto Carlos, Adriano, Ze Roberto, Emerson and all the others were incredible, with one exception: Ronaldo may be through. He's been criticized for months by everyone from the President of Brazil to reporters following the team for being too fat and out of shape. The heartless fans in England have even been singing songs to him that go, "He's fat, he's round, he's paid a million pounds..." He's denied everything, but there was no denying his pathetic performance today. He didn't run and he looked like he couldn't run. He just kind of walked around on one end of the field, hoping that he might get a free shot at the goal; which he finally got, and missed. In the 69th minute, still two goals short of Gerd "Der Bomber" Mueller's record of all-time World Cup goals, he was pulled from the game in favor of a younger and better player, Robinho. Robinho is the new young superstar and the improvement in team speed was immediate. When combined with Ronaldinho and Kaka who're both in their prime, the 22 year-old Robinho may turn out to be the newest star to emerge from Brazil in this tourney... Ronaldinho is so good, that even double-teams don't work. At one point, he had four defenders surrounding him and he just dribbled and juggled his way out of trouble and headed for the box, causing the entire Croat defense to collapse backward to defend the goal against him! Wow! For the record, the Croats are crazy. Behind through most of the game, they never stopped cheering, singing, drinking or going berzerk in their red-checkerboard flags and clothing. Late in the game, they began to light flares and set fires in the stands as they whipped themselves into a frenzy worthy of the natives on Kong Island anticipating the sacrifice of a white virgin. As I watched this display, I thought to myself, "Thank God, they're a small country; if they were the size of Germany they'd take over the world." - Tomorrow Espana unveils its latest team for the world to see. From the very earliest days, Spain has been a major player in this drama, just like Brazil, Germany, Italy, England or Argentina. But unlike those others, the Spanish have never won it. In fact, they've never even come close, not even when the World Cup was held in Madrid. They have the talent to do it, but they always fail. I'll be curious to see how they fail this time... ...................JO'Co
But nothing yet like this favorite from the 2002 World Cup (Do not click at work or in front of children)
-The Spanish actually showed up this time and their coach did something that the coaches for Brazil and the United States should have done: he benched his best player and started the guys who wanted to win. The greatest scorer/player in Espana is Raul and he sat the pine as his teammates whacked the Ukraine 4-0. It was a slaughter that looked like an American full-court press. The Spainards jumped on their arses as soon as they inbounded the ball and didn't let up. Maybe this is finally the year that Spain doesn't choke... -Tunisia and Saudi Arabia had a holy war that was entertaining to watch. I'm not sure that either team had ever won a World Cup game before and I don't think the Saudis had ever scored. Well, Allah be praised, it was a blood-bath, with the lead changing hands and goals scored by both teams late in the game. It finally ended in a 2-2 tie, both teams gave a great effort and their fans should be very proud... -The game of the day was closer to a real war. Poland has never beaten Germany...in anything. The all-time World Cup records show a German advantage of 12 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie. Because the border has moved so often, BOTH starting strikers for Germany were born in Poland, including star forward Miroslav Klose, who speaks fluent Polish. There was some rioting in the streets before the game, with Nazis and Communists on both sides fighting against police who were brought in from both countries. Taking no chances, the Germans scheduled this match for Dortmund, their largest stadium, where they have NEVER been defeated... The match was a Central European street brawl right out of the 1930's. Play was rough on both sides, with the Poles being especially rough. The Germans bombed the Polish goal again and again, but the Poles sensational goalie, Boruc, kept them in the game with one fantastic save after another. With almost no time left in a scoreless tie, disaster befell the Poles at last, when one of their thug defensemen, Sobelewski, was red-carded (kicked out of the game) for attempted murder and they had to play with only 10 men in the final minutes. Boruc took it up to another level, in one of the great goalkeeping stands ever seen. At one point, the Germans took 4 straight point-blank shots inside the box and he stopped them all. Finally, with only seconds left in stoppage time, one of them found the mark and Germany had won again 1-0, setting off a massive celebration by the locals. Germany has now become the first team to qualify for Round Two... BTW- Boruc is NOT an unknown. He's the goalkeeper for Celtic in the Scottish League... - More tomorrow. The USA plays Italy on Saturday...
That's funny, Bobda, but from what I read yesterday, he was one of the known hooligans who was arrested before the match. Think about that: "known hooligan". I don't think we have those types here in the U.S., do we? Career rabble rousers who travel to sporting events for the sole purpose of causing trouble? Ah, wonderful Europe.
:roll: Not much to report today. World Cup Live Matches Standings Jun 15, 2006 - Final A ECU 3 : 0 CRC Jun 15, 2006 - Final B ENG 2 : 0 TRI Jun 15, 2006 - Final B SWE 1 : 0 PAR Ecuador continues to amaze with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica and they're in first place and already qualified for Round #2... England has qualified too with another ho-hum shutout. This one over Trinidad and Tobago... Sweden's fans booed them unmercifully through another scoreless effort, when they shocked even themselves and scored a goal with 90 seconds left to eliminate Paraguay and give themselves a chance in this tournament... Tomorrow is the Fascist Superbowl: Argentina vs. Serbia ................JO'Co
the super bowl <t>is a super butt kicking. sheesh, this is bad. the teenage boy wonder for Argentina looks spectacular</t>
8) Mexicans here are in terrible pain over their tie with Angola. Eric rubbed some salsa in their wounds at the Mexican restaurant where everyone was wearing their Mexican national colors. They have more disappointments on the way. In the second round they will face either Holland or Argentina... Holland eliminated Ivory Coast and the Ivorians were a very good team. They were just in a tough group. The Dutch have an outside chance to win this thing if they can keep getting the ball to Nistleroy (sp?). But the talk of the day is all about Argentina... How good are these guys? They can't be this good! So far, they're the greatest futebol team I've ever seen. Serbia wasn't dog doo-doo. The Serbs have allowed only ONE goal in all of their qualifying matches, but Argentina scored at will, with different players, from every conceivable direction. The final score was Argentina 6 _ Serbia 0, but it was much worse than that. They've now outscored their first two opponents 9-0 and they're putting on a show. It looks like the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals. I keep waiting for Meadowlark to pull somebody's trousers down just for laughs... Its hard to believe, but the coach of the Argentines, Jose Peckerman, is very unpopular back home. Fans are furious that he hasn't been starting the right players. With a team this deep, it was hard for me to tell until today and guess what? The fans back home are right. Every time this team substitutes they put BETTER players on the field! Two goals were scored by Maxi Rodriquez making his first appearance in the WC. That's right. He's been sitting on the bench. The miracle goal that has the whole world talking was scored by Esteban Cambiasso, who also came in as a sub, on an incredible no-look, behind-the-back, backward heel pass from Hernan Crespo. The fans back home don't want Crespo or Javier Saviola starting as the strikers, but they've scored goals and had assists in every game and they've been the most productive forwards in this World Cup. That is, they were the most productive until the final 15 minutes of todays game, when Peckerman yanked them (to hold the score down?) and brought in some substitutes, the like of which hadn't been seen since American troops replaced French forces along the line in WWI... Carlos Tevez is no ordinary substitute. He's a three-time South American Player of the Year. There are no better players in the world: not Raul, not Ronaldinho, not anybody. From the moment he stepped on the field, amazing things started happening. He dribbled right through a group of three defenders by himself and ran right past others. He drew the entire defense to himself, then passed to wide-open teammates... Lionel Messi also came in for the final 15 minutes and he is no ordinary player either. He's is only 18 years-old and he is the Messiah: the New Maradonna. The child who will lead Argentina back to the Promised Land from the wilderness of the semi-finals. The phenom, the kid the... How can anyone possibly live up to all that hype? Well guess what? He's even better than they said... In the brief 15 minutes that they were in there, Tevez and Messi combined with their teammates for three goals and seemed to elevate the Argentine team and their fans to heights not seen in the World Cup since Pele's Brazillians. Into the game just two minutes, Messi drew the defense to himself and found Crespo on the other side of the box for the 4th goal and his first WC assist. A few minutes later, with the Serbs trying to keep up with the kid, Tevez waltzed around everyone else and scored the Argentine's 5th goal. This caused the defense to turn their attention back to Tevez in the final minutes, so he drew the defense to himself near the goal where he found young Messi coming open on the other side for goal number 6. It was amazing! In just 15 minutes, Tevez and Messi each had a goal and they each had an assist too. They had created three goals altogether and added fuel to the fire under Peckerman's seat. Who should start at striker for Argentina? Crespo? Saviola? Tevez? Messi? Everyone they put out there appears to be better than any defense can handle and they all work together like a neighborhood team that can read each others minds... So far, Argentina looks like the class of the world and it will take a world class team to stop them....
mexico <t>god am i giggling at mexico's stagger. argentina's goal in concert with the mexican sand flop put a smile that hasn't been on my face since the american's went belly up.<br/> <br/> i don't believe the second round is a gimme for team green. their final game is against a portugal team that is more talented than they are. if angola wins their last game against S&M, mexico could be in trouble especially if portugal beats mexico by a few goals.</t>
gutty game <t>well today we got to see all that is ugly about international soccer. i don't mind the bloodfest slugout games. i don't mind elbows to the nose. it happens. what i do mind is 'make up' red cards to try to even the score. i believe at one stretch of the game, the foul count was something like USA 21 Italy 7. Given that one team is known for their trap and counter offense (USA) and the other is known for their hack, pull and slow tactical counter offense (Italy) I never thought I'd see such a lopsided foul count in a game between the two. <br/> <br/> The Italians are traditionally as tough a physical, defensive team as there is in international football. The US gave them a physical war that they did not expect. However, the officiating was bush league at best. Terrible, terrible job by that official.<br/> <br/> On a side note, had the US given such an effort against the Czech Republic I don't believe the Americans would be hoping for help in consecutive games.</t>
Today was World Cup soccer at it's absolute worst. First of all, this is "Men's soccer" not fanouk ball. This Italian team of supposed world class athletes couldn't keep their feet during contact that wouldn't knock down a 7 yr. old. Imagine if every time a turnover occurred in basketball, the player losing the ball fell to the ground grabbing his hand writhing in pain. And worse, imagine if the refs bought that crap. imagine if every time a pitch was inside the batter fell down holding his chest, and the ump bought it. Well, that would be Euro sports to a tee. Why do we bother to play this sport when it is played in such an effeminate manner? Screw the World Cup and it's officials. It's not a sporting event, it's an acting contest. Let's call it European Idol. Total and complete crap.
:evil: I certainly don't think we're being too critical of the referees here. We got beat 3-0 in the opener and I never heard a single complaint from any American and I didn't have any gripes either. We got beat fair and square by the Czechs, but today the Eye-ties were handed a point they didn't deserve by the worst World Cup referee I've ever seen. I read that he has been suspended before and was even banned from the last World Cup. Why was he allowed back in? I began watching the World Cup in 1966, when the infamous Knobby Stiles made attempted murder a fine art in leading the English to their only (lucky) World Cup title. Over the decades, I've watched Uruguay hack down virtually every player who touched the ball, while Paraguay hacked down nearly every other one. I've seen Italy play nothing but physical defense and Mexico take dive, after dive, after dive...but I had never seen anything like what we saw today. Its understood that America, as the only super-power still standing, is hated, but this is just a game. If they don't want us there, why were we invited? This is THEIR sport, not ours. It sure looks like they can't stand the very idea of America beating them at the one and only thing where they could feel superior to us. What a disgrace... Here's the official line on this game... USA and Italy Play to World Cup Draw By Parke Brewer Kaiserslautern, Germany 18 June 2006 The U.S. soccer team played Italy to a 1-1 draw to keep its hopes alive of reaching the second round of the World Cup in Germany. In a hard-fought, physical game that featured three red card ejections and nearly 40 fouls, the United States held on valiantly to tie Italy, 1-1. The Americans played nearly the entire second half with nine players to Italy's 10. Alberto Gilardino gave Italy the lead in the 22nd minute with a diving header off a free kick. The equalizer came five minutes later when Italian Cristian Zaccardo knocked the ball into his own net off a free kick near the sideline from American Bobby Convey. Shortly thereafter, Italian Daniele De Rossi was red-carded for elbowing U.S. forward Brian McBride in the face, drawing blood, and American Pablo Mastroeni was sent off just before the half for a hard sliding tackle. Teammate Eddie Pope got his second yellow card and was ejected two minutes after the intermission. Under the circumstances, U.S. coach Bruce Arena was proud of his team's effort. "Two red cards (for our team) within a span of five minutes (of actual playing time) is pretty harsh. I really respect our team for the way they dealt with it. There's no way you train a team to play ten against nine for 40 some-odd minutes in the World Cup, and our guys did a tremendous job. A lot of teams would lose their composure and use it as an excuse for not winning on the day or losing, and our guys played with a lot of heart today," he said. Coach Arena gave a lot of credit to his goalkeeper, Kasey Keller, who made a number of difficult saves throughout the match, especially when the Americans were playing a man down. "That's Kasey. We never have any doubts in tough times that Kasey's going to be there for this team. He came up big today and showed the kind of goalie that we know that he is. He's an outstanding goalkeeper," he said. And for his performance, Keller was named Man of the Match. But he said for this match, the award should be shared. "I'm only accepting this for my team, because I didn't win anything. This was a total team effort. Those guys bled today for our country and our team. I can't say enough. I'm just glad I could help them out every once in awhile because today was about a team and this award goes to the team, definitely," he said. And this 1-1 draw against Italy marks the first time in nine tries that a U.S. soccer team has ever gotten a point in a World Cup match played in Europe, or in any game in Europe against the big five nations of Italy, Germany, Spain, England and France. The draw also means that, coupled with Ghana's surprise 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic in Saturday's earlier Group-E match, the U.S. team is still in the hunt for one of the two group berths for the World Cup's second round. With the Italians, Czechs and Ghana all with three points and the Americans with one, any of the four can advance depending on the results of their final group matches on Thursday. Italy will play the Czech Republic and the USA will face Ghana. :evil:
We now learn that the official selected by FIFA (Faggot Internationale Futboll Association) is under suspension in his home country for "irregularities." He's not allowed to ref games there because he's been determined to have been unfair (if not flat out dishonest) and he is selected to officiate this critical game for the US with a Euro power. Incredible!!!
The only thing I can say about this discussion of referees is that MCG is showing great restraint in not chiming in. :wink:
8) A dull day today. The French finally scored their first goal since 1998, but South Korea tied them anyway 1-1. If you ever wondered what happened to France, take a look at their national soccer team. The first thing you notice is: they don't have any Frenchmen on it. Thanks to their immigration policies, most of the players are Africans. Even the white players, like Zidane are Arabs... Many countries now have Brazillians playing for them, including Japan and Mexico... Brazil looked a little better in beating Australia 2-0, but Ronaldo still looks terrible. They're keeping him in the starting lineup in the hope that he can score two goals to tie the all-time record, but he's not going to make it. When they get to the knockout round, they had better replace him with Robinho permanently...